These relations are thus specifically stated, because in them is found the authority for man to make use of all things which exist, that by such use, higher purposes may be subserved and better general conditions obtained. As the gardener destroys all weeds and foreign growths about the vegetables he would produce, so must the gardener in ideas pull up, eradicate or destroy, all false or decaying ideas which sap the vitality from those he would have flourish; and this authority is the same—the authority of the higher over the lower, to the extent of individual freedom and within the limits of the general good.
Such is the province of art, and man, in whatever department of nature he operates, is the artist, adding to her beauties, which she can produce by her laws, those which the evolution of higher ideas proposes. Thus art utilizes and beautifies all that nature produces. Nature alone could never produce a Central Park, nor the perfection in fruits and flowers that is now presented to please the taste and gladden the eye. No one will question the right of man to make from nature the most of beauty it is capable of, nor to make it most conducive to all his natural desires. And here is found the basis for the authority from which it is analogically argued, that man has the right to practice as an artist in ideas. The position this artist in ideas should be assigned should be as much higher in the scale of importance as ideas are higher than crude matter.
Government being the most formidable director of ideas and the most powerful opponent of their diffusion, if they are not in channels it can operate through, its perfectability according to the highest existing ideas is a matter of the most fearful importance. It is for this reason that so great importance attaches to the diffusion among the people of knowledge of the principles government should be constructed upon that its administration may be productive of the greatest individual, and the greatest public good, which it is possible to obtain from the application of the highest evolved ideas.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
NO. III
It has been the intention to show the importance of unity of purpose in government, and that such unity of purpose can only be obtained by the application to administration of those principles which in operation produce unity in the kingdoms below the kingdom of ideas. Human government differs from all other kinds of government in this, that it is for the control of Mind instead of Matter. The natural direction the individual would pursue results not only from causes which arise in his material nature, but to these are superadded those which pertain to the Mental in contradistinction to Matter. Each individual is not only an epitome of all previous material forms which have been evolved, but he is also the finite representative of the Infinite Power which caused all those evolutions, and therefore has an individualized, determining power of his own to the extent that he represents the Infinite; and as this extent differs in degree so extensively among the total of individuals over whom government presides, it is the most difficult of all tasks to prescribe forms for it to operate through, by which it can reach and control this diversity.
This most serious difficulty which arises at every step in the search for the true source of government, comes from the innate sentiment of freedom in man, which is the truthful expression of the characteristics of the Infinite, which are indigenous, so to speak, to his nature. He involuntarily resists all attempts to exercise authority over him because of these sentiments. He feels, he realizes, that no individual, nor any number of individuals, has any authority from any competent authority to exercise supreme control over him; and thus it is that all individuals resist control.
Just at the point arrived at comes in the other part of the fact, which being considered, modifies the absoluteness of individuality. Every individual must either ever remember, or be compelled to remember, that he is but one of millions of individuals who live upon the face of the earth, each one of whom feels the same innate sentiment of self-right; and thus it comes that there should be no restraint at all over each individual exercising all his selfish ideas of rights strictly within his individual sphere; and that all these should be compelled to harmonize so that none may interfere with others. Even to this last proposition there are natural modifications to be inferred from everything below man. The higher order has the authority of its position in the natural scale of evolution, over all that precedes it; and this authority is of that absolute character which receives the sanction of nature in all the kingdoms which man can view.
The higher orders of ideas and thoughts should thus be the controlling power among men. They should assume the business of the artist in ideas, and prune, dig and destroy, if possible, all lower ideas which, live but to sap the vitality from the more advanced. The best expression, then, which it is possible for principles to find in the individualized productions of the highest animal form, must be sought in the most highly developed mentality; or in that mentality which expresses the most of the Infinite, and which is consequently the highest authority represented through humanity.
Mentality represents the most important department of the duality which constitutes the source of governmental power; but this, acting alone, would not prove the perfect principle. It would pursue its aims with no regard to sentiment or feeling. It would ruthlessly destroy all imperfections which debarred it from having absolute control, instead of endeavoring to consolidate their life with the higher and the better because it is the higher. To this active, sternly analytic principle, must be added the principle of unity or the affectional, which seeks to combine all mentality in one harmony. The head and the heart should act in concert; the head perceiving that the same general principles should be used to direct the forms of every department of life, and endeavoring to apply them to control humanity, should head the appeals of the heart, which, from its mainsprings of love and tenderness, feels, that the whole universe is bound together by the indissoluble ties of fraternity, and, therefore, should realize that as a father and mother, they should govern their children. Of these principles, government should be the true exponent, representative and administrator.